Portugal wins Eurovision Song Contest for first time

Portugal's Salvador Sobral celebrates after winning the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine, May 13, 2017. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest performing a jazz-style ballad written by sister Luisa, beating second-place Bulgaria.

“Music is not fireworks, music is feeling,” Sobral said after the winner was announced.

Italy and Portugal had been the bookmakers’ favorites going into the 62nd edition of the Eurovision contest, which was hosted in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

This is the first time Portugal won since it first entered the contest in 1964. After being announced as the winner, Sobral performed the song once again, this time in duet with his sister.

The commentator on the Portuguese state broadcaster RTP shouted “we have, we have won, this is amazing, it is absolutely incredible.”